Business

Artificial intelligence lab Anthropic filed suit on Monday challenging a move by the Pentagon last week officially designating the company as a "supply chain risk" after it refused to allow unrestricted military use of its AI system, Claude.  The US Defense Department had demanded Anthropic remove guardrails blocking its AI for functions like autonomous ​weapons or domestic surveillance. Before the deadline for a deal passed on February 27, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei had warned US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth about the risks of using untested AI in autonomous warfare and refused to remove use restrictions. The Pentagon argued that technology companies were not in a position to dictate matters of warfare.  In a post on X, Hegseth wrote that US troops "will never be held hostage by the...

The price of oil soared to nearly $120 a barrel on Monday after Israel struck Iran's energy infrastructure over the weekend and Tehran announced Mojtaba Khamenei as the country's new supreme leader. The attacks, which marked a major escalation in the 10-day-old conflict, sent fresh fears throughout global energy markets, with Brent crude reaching $119.50 (€103.30) a barrel. It later fell back to around $100, and on Tuesday, oil was trading below $90 a barrel, but still more than 20% higher than when the war started on February 28. The worsening conflict raises the risk to energy infrastructure across the Middle East, where producers are already grappling with damaged sites from Iranian attacks and the closure of the world's most critical oil shipping route. With diminishing storage fac...

Volkswagen's top executives on Tuesday said the vast automotive empire suffered a 44% reduction in net profits in 2025, with gains after tax dropping to €6.9 billion (roughly $8 billion) from 12.4 billion in 2024. That's the company's worst annual overall performance since 2016, at the height of the financial fallout from the so-called "Dieselgate" scandal.  "2025 was punctuated by geopolitical tensions, tariffs and highly intense competition," Chief Financial Officer Arno Antlitz said in the company press release.  The VW Group is planning 50,000 job cuts across its various brands by 2030. It is struggling with falling demand and rapidly improving homemade competition in China, as well as new tariffs in the US, by far its two biggest export markets.  Like the rest of the German car in...

The war in the Middle East has left global investors grappling with the impact of a drawn-out regional conflict on global energy supplies and its potential to stoke inflation around the world. Global stock markets have been sinking and oil and gas prices have soared since Monday, the first day of trading after US and Israeli attacks on Iran on Saturday (February 28) and Iran's response, which involved targeting major oil and gas infrastructure in the region. Brent crude continued its rise on Wednesday, after breaching $80 (€69) a barrel the day before. Gas prices have also soared in Asia and Europe. Much of the investor attention continues to be on the Strait of Hormuz, a key chokepoint accounting for around 20% of global oil supply and large quantities of gas. An official from Iran's R...

The US-Israel attack on Iran and Iran's aggressive response have unnerved oil markets, with many analysts predicting a massive rise in oil prices.While Iran is responsible for just 3-4% of global oil output, its proximity to the Strait of Hormuz, considered the world's most critical oil chokepoint, is prompting oil analysts to raise their forecasts for future oil prices. A prolonged disruption to traffic in the strait, which carries around one-fifth of oil consumed globally as well as large quantities of gas, could see oil prices breach the $100-a-barrel threshold, a prospect that would hurt the global economy and push up prices that are already proving difficult to rein in. Brent crude surged as much as 13% on Monday (March 2) — the first day of trading after US-Israel strikes — before ...

Components from German manufacturers have been found in Russian drones attacking Ukrainian cities. German media reported on this in January, citing the latest Geran-5 attack drone in particular. The television broadcaster ntv and later other German media reported that transistors made by the German company Infineon Technologies were found in a Geran-5, along with other foreign-made components. The information had been published on a web portal called War and Sanctions, which is run by Ukraine's military intelligence service HUR. It includes a detailed list of all foreign components found to date in Russian military equipment. According to the War and Sanctions website, the majority of foreign components in Russian military equipment come from the US and China. Some 137 components are lis...

The United States and Israel launched an attack on Iran on Saturday (February 28), an escalation that could lead to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a major oil shipping route at the mouth of the Persian Gulf.  Iran has repeatedly threatened to close the strait, signalling that it can disrupt the vital maritime artery that carries a fifth of the world's oil consumption. But Tehran has never followed through on its threats to close off access to the strait completely, as this would prevent it from shipping its own oil abroad and would likely provoke a rapid international response. If Iran were to follow through on its threat, oil prices could rise sharply, which would deal a massive blow to the global economy. In February, oil prices rose to their highest levels in months as traders w...

The US-Israel attack on Iran and Iran's aggressive response have unnerved oil markets, with many analysts predicting a massive rise in oil prices.While Iran is responsible for just 3-4% of global oil output, its proximity to the Strait of Hormuz, considered the most critical oil chokepoint in the world, is prompting oil analysts to raise their forecasts for future oil prices. A prolonged disruption to traffic in the strait, through which a fifth of the world's oil production is transported, could see oil prices breach the $100-a-barrel threshold, a prospect that would hurt the global economy and push up prices that are already proving difficult to rein in. Oil prices had already risen to their highest levels in months ahead of the latest war in the oil-rich region as traders worried abou...

The benefits of artificial intelligence (AI) may come at a high cost for consumers. Surging demand for memory chips is driving up the price of smartphones and computers — including in Germany. "The AI boom, along with the massive investments in infrastructure and data centers that come with it, is having a noticeable impact on the memory chip market," Wolfgang Weber, CEO of the German Electro and Digital Industry Association (ZVEI), told DW. "According to analyses by the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) institute, prices for these chips rose by 50% last year," Weber said. As a result, consumers may face not only longer delivery times but also higher prices for electronic and digital devices. "Bottlenecks in such key technologies pose a serious problem for our economy," the as...

How did Jeffrey Epstein, a college dropout who started off teaching math and physics, make a huge fortune? At least at the beginning, the man from a working-class family in Coney Island, New York, had luck on his side. Through connections, Epstein got a job at investment bank Bear Stearns, which gave him insight into high finance. In 1980, he was made a limited partner. After five years, he left the bank but used his time there and contacts as a sign of credibility. Jeffrey Epstein was a man of mystery and finance After he left Bear Stearns, Epstein's name resurfaced in financial circles, but it was hard to say what he actually did. "He was a cypher," said Charles Gasparino, a senior correspondent at Fox Business Network in Netflix's 2020 documentary "Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich." N...